- The US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) has approved the first vaccine for dengue, Dengvaxia, with significant restrictions on its use as the vaccine has been shown to put some people at heightened risk for a severe form of the disease.
- While clearing the vaccine, the USFDA acknowledged the serious public health benefit of slowing a disease that affects hundreds of millions of people around the world.
- That decision came after Sanofi announced that in rare cases, if people who never had dengue were vaccinated and later became infected, the vaccine might provoke a much more severe form of the illness.
- According to an estimate, more than one-third of the world’s population lives in areas at risk for infection with the dengue virus, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As estimated 400 million dengue virus infections occur around the world, and there are about 5,00,000 severe cases of the severe form, dengue haemorrhagic fever, which causes about 20,000 deaths, according to the CDC.
Dengvaxia
- CYD-TDV (Dengvaxia) is the first dengue vaccine to be licensed. It was first licensed in Mexico in December 2015 for use in individuals 9-45 years of age living in endemic areas, and is now licensed in 20 countries. CYD-TDV is a live recombinant tetravalent dengue vaccine developed by Sanofi Pasteur (CYD-TDV), given as a 3-dose series on a 0/6/12 month schedule.
